pearl wrote:

> "Martin Willett" > wrote in message ...
>
>>S. Maizlich wrote:
>>
>>
>>>It is UNDISPUTED by evolutionary biologists that meat played an
>>>indispensable role in human evolution. Meat's role was both direct and
>>>indirect. The direct role was in providing the massive amount of
>>>protein needed for brain development. The indirect role is as an
>>>organizing principle of human activity.
>>
>>The organizational role is absolutely critical. There is no reason for a
>>vegetarian species to develop sophisticated communication because they
>>don't have anything sophisticated to communicate. Fruits and tubers
>>don't require teamwork or sophisticated tools to subdue, but our
>>ancestors brought down mammoths, give them some respect.
>>
>>Belittling the role of meat and hunting in evolution is as much
>>pseudo-science as creationism is. The collection of snippets of research
>>here and there that seem to offer some suggestion of support for a pre
>>decided stance is the antithesis of the scientific method.
>>
>>Human evolution required meat eating and hunting. That is not to say
>>that man was ever exclusively carnivorous, the only largely carnivorous
>>hominid was /Homo neanderthalensis/, who was almost as carnivorous as a
>>polar bear. But as far as anybody can tell all our direct ancestors were
>>omnivorous but more carnivorous than modern chimpanzees and that change
>>in diet was significant for the development of larger brains both in
>>allowing expansion and requiring it.
>
>
> "It is highly probable that plant foods were indeed the major part
> of the early hominid economy, and unequivocal evidence for hunting
> as against scavenging carrion does not appear until relatively late in
> the fossil record, probably not earlier than half-a-million years ago."

Humans hunted from the beginning. Chimpanzees have
*always* hunted as well.


> Frugivory is an intellectually demanding feeding behaviour

Bullshit.